When running a membership business, it's often helpful to ask yourself how your approach compares to others. Whether analyzing if your churn rate is too high or if you are underpricing your membership, or seeking to measure the lifetime value of your customers, understanding benchmarks and averages among video creators in your industry can give you the data-driven insights you need to optimize your subscription strategy.
In this article, we’ll walk you through the key features of Uscreen’s Subscription Benchmark Analytics.
Views
Within the Subscription Benchmark Analytics report, you can view benchmarks and averages based on two main views:
The Industry Averages table shows you how your subscription metrics compare to the average for the selected industry in the report filter. This view allows you to easily review your subscription metrics (disaggregated by monthly versus annual plans, and combined) compared to the selected Industry filter.
The Benchmarks charts show you the same metrics but with 25%/50%/75% quartile comparisons to give you a sense of how your metrics stack up to the range of sites across the selected industry.
Filters
The only filter available in this report is the Industry filter, which allows you to compare your subscription metrics against the following comparison groups:
All Businesses: Includes all businesses considered in the benchmark calculations.
Education & Coaching: Includes businesses that primarily focus on delivering educational content, courses, or coaching services.
Faith & Spirituality: Includes businesses offering religious or spiritual content.
Fitness: Includes businesses offering fitness-related content, such as workout programs, training plans, or health-focused subscriptions.
Media & Entertainment: Includes businesses that provide content like music, videos, or other forms of entertainment.
Top Businesses: Includes the top 100 businesses on our platform, based on net sales.
Yoga & Wellness: Includes businesses specializing in yoga, meditation, and wellness-related content.
Most of Uscreen Analytics allows you to drill down into underlying data and explore different date ranges and granularities. However, this report presents a snapshot of aggregated data from other businesses, so it does not allow for detailed exploration. The purpose of this report is to provide a high-level benchmark, offering a clear comparison of metrics at a given point in time for strategic decision-making.
Metrics
The key subscription metrics included in this report are the following:
Listed Price (USD) reflects the average price of your subscription for all paid invoices before any discounts or gift cards are applied
Discount (%) reflects the average percent difference between the listed price and the sale price, or the amount that the customer paid
Average Revenue per User (USD), commonly known as ARPU, identifies how much revenue the average active customer is accounting for in your subscription, calculated as MRR / paying members
Share of Subscription Revenue (%) captures the percentage of subscription net sales for the respective billing interval, with the goal of helping you understand how much of your subscription revenue is coming from monthly versus annual plans compared to other sites
Share of Subscription Transactions (%) captures the percentage of subscription sales (invoices paid) for the respective billing interval, with the goal of helping you understand how much of your subscription sales is coming from monthly versus annual plans compared to other sites
Churn Rate (%) reflects the percentage of subscribers who cancel their subscription each month
Twelve Month Retention (%) reflects the percentage of subscribers who remain subscribed for at least 12 months, calculated as number of customers still active at the end of month 12 after initial subscription sign-up / number of customers with an initial subscription sign-up
Lifetime (months) indicates the expected number of months that a customer will continue subscribing to your membership, calculated as 1 / churn rate
Lifetime (USD), commonly known as LTV, indicates the predicted subscription revenue attributed to the customer over their entirety of your business relationship, calculated as ARPU * Lifetime (months)
This is not an exhaustive list of metrics you can and should be tracking to optimize your subscription business, but ones that content creators cite as the most useful in evaluating their membership strategy.
FAQ
Where can I access Subscription Benchmarks reports?
Visit ‘Analytics’ in your Admin Area and then click on Subscriptions. From there, you will see a new ‘Benchmarks’ tab beside ‘MRR’ which will populate the new Benchmarks reports.
How often is the Benchmarks report updated?
It's updated every three months, including the past six months of data. This timeframe is by design, allowing you to only evaluate benchmarks periodically as you consider changes to their subscription strategy. We do not intend for you to review every day, as we believe more stable, periodic benchmarks comparisons will be more useful and more trustworthy
Which businesses are included in the benchmarks?
The only businesses included in the comparison groups are those on a contract-based subscription with Uscreen making at least $1K USD in net sales per month. This approach ensures benchmarks and averages are not understated by including businesses that are not fully active.
What if none of the available industries match my business? Can I see benchmarks for a different segment?
Our current segmentations are based on Industry, ensuring they contain enough data to provide reliable benchmarks. If none of the available industries match your business, we'd love to hear your feedback. Feel free to submit a feature suggestion for additional segment types.
How should I use these benchmarks?
You can use these benchmarks to compare your performance against other businesses in your industry. This can help you identify areas where you're excelling, as well as areas where there's potential to adjust your strategy. For example, if you're below the median for key metrics, you may want to explore strategies to increase your sales or improve retention. Additionally, the benchmarks can help you set realistic goals.
Should I rely solely on these benchmarks reports to define my business strategies?
While the benchmarks reports can provide valuable insights and context about other creators within your industry, they should not be the sole factor in shaping your business strategy. These reports offer a snapshot of performance within a specific segment and at a specific point in time, and should be considered as one piece of the puzzle. It's important to also take into account other factors, such as your unique business goals, customer feedback, market conditions, and your internal data, to develop a well-rounded strategy.
Why isn't the report showing some of my metrics?
Some metrics may not appear if there isn't enough data to generate a result. For example, twelve-month retention will only be shown if you've had subscribers for more than 12 months. Same goes for churn on annual subscriptions. Additionally, if your business has limited data, be cautious when comparing your results to industry benchmarks, as they may not fully reflect long-term trends or be statistically significant.
What if a Uscreen customer is doing more business than me? Are they skewing these benchmarks?
The Industry Averages section shows simple averages, meaning outliers are not excluded. The benchmarks section, on the other hand, does not rely on averages. It uses quartiles: The 'Top 25%' corresponds to the third quartile (Q3), the 'Middle 50%' represents the median, and the 'Bottom 25%' is the first quartile (Q1) for each metric. Everything under the 'Benchmarks' section uses this quartile method, which minimizes the impact of outliers.